1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manufacturing machine of an original design watch with a dial made in accordance with a design information inputted as a drawing, which is figured on monitor screen of a personal computer, a photograph or a picture, which is selected or prepared by a customer himself.
2. Prior Art
Typically, watches are manufactured and sold by watch makers who decide their design based on surveys of customers"" taste. However, nowadays there is a rising demand of watch with original design by customers who desire to have his own watch that no other one has in the world, or to put special words on the dial of it as a gift. For this kind of demand, it has been tried that watch makers prepare a wide range of selection from various designs of dial, watch hands and other component, then a customer orders a watch with option for combination of them, and the watch maker begins to make it individually in accordance with the optional order, or a watch maker makes a watch individually whose dial design was copied from a photograph, a picture or a drawing given by the customer.
The above stated watch employing dial design that was selected or given by the customer himself is thought much of value, however, there has been a problem that it takes too long from the time of ordering to a delivery.
There is another problem that it is not so easy to order because the customer is required to keep on a predetermined standard manner or regulation how to select and specify the design for his watch.
Further, because manufacturing of the watch is achieved at a factory of the watch maker, a sense of participation for the customer by himself is lacking in the above stated original design watch manufacturing and it does not always respond to the demand of customer who desires the original design watch made easily by himself.
The present invention is intended to solve above stated problems and it is an object of the present invention to provide a manufacturing machine of the original design watch or original design dial for the watch, by which a customer can get a watch and/or a dial for it on the spot which is made in accordance with a design selected or given by the customer himself.
In an original design watch manufacturing machine provided by the present invention, it chooses components of the watch, works upon and assembles them in accordance with a design information inputted through a design input apparatus by a customer himself. Assembling and other operation of this manufacturing machine are governed by a control apparatus.
In the original design watch manufacturing machine of the present invention, it chooses a housing assembly from a plurality of various kind of them as half finished goods which are beforehand prepared and stocked, in accordance with the directed information on color and shape by the design information transferred from the control apparatus, and sends the housing assembly to a manufacturing apparatus where machining and assembling are achieved. Then, the manufacturing apparatus draws a pattern, picture, photograph or characters on a dial plate for the watch by printing, or by other manner alike in accordance with the inputted design information, then it furnishes a designated hands, and put a specified cover glass to complete the watch. Further, when it is requested, it packs and wraps the completed watch to deliver it to the customer.
In the original design watch manufacturing machine provided by the present invention, the above described housing assembly which are previously stocked may be a half finished goods contains movement and dial plate in a housing and it may also be furnished with a wrist band.
The original design watch made by the manufacturing machine of the present invention is completed with processes of fabrication and furnishing of dial, watch hands and cover glass from front side of the housing assembly of above described half finished goods.
Moreover, the manufacturing machine of the present invention can be provided with a coin counting apparatus which recognizes and calculates coins, and makes changes, which enables automatically to manufacture and sell the original design watches in a vending machine.
The original design watch manufacturing machine of the present invention comprises a dial drawing means which draws a designated design pattern as a printing layer on a specified part of the dial plate in accordance with the design information transferred from the input apparatus. The dial drawing means consists of a drawing means and other means, which are governed by the control apparatus.
The manufacturing apparatus of the original design dial provided by the present invention chooses a dial plate from a plurality of stocked dial plates in accordance with the design information and brings them to the drawing means. In another aspect of the invention, it is possible to apply an embodiment with different arrangement of the manufacturing machine in which the selected dial plates is mounted on the drawing means manually by hands of the customer. Then by the drawing means, the dial is completed with a process of drawing the designated pattern, picture, photograph or characters on the surface of the watch face plate by printing in accordance with the inputted design information.
The dial plate of the present invention which is previously stocked, is composed with an under layer to make adhesion better to the printing layer as well as to prevent occurrence of a stain or a spot on the printing layer, or it is composed with a base plate on which the under layer is made. When in case the dial plate is made only by the under layer, the watch face is completed with a process that the printed under layer is stuck onto a surface of the base plate after printing automatically by a sticking apparatus or manually with a sticking jig.
The original design dial made by the manufacturing machine of the present invention consists of the base plate, the under layer arranged on the base plate, and printed layer which is formed on the under layer in accordance with the design information. The under layer of the original design dial is made of a paper, synthetic resin film or porous coated layer to maximize adhesion and to minimize occurrence of a stain or a spot on the printed layer. The existence of this layer makes the printing process on the original design dial plate easier.